The antivax crowd is as bad as the creationists (i.e. fundagelicals)

Phil Plait, detailing some of the more obnoxious comments he received to his well-reasoned and well-documented article Vaccines do not cause autism!.

You do not have the credentials to have an opinion on this subject.

Well, I’m a trained scientist, able to read graphs and do basic statistics. I have a passing familiarity with logical processes, and how to think through an argument. I also have years of experience as a professional skeptic, you might say, in seeing through fallacious arguments.

I’ll note that the emailer did not give their credentials on understanding the subject, either.

Your flippant, self-promoting, and arrogant rant shows what you are all about — attention.

Oh, attention doesn’t hurt, especially when I think my message — like this one — is of critical importance. But that argument is wrong anyway; where does it actually deal with the content of my message?

Yeah, that last one was nothing more than name-calling, which is so constructive to a meaningful discourse. [/sarcasm] He goes on to sum it up pretty well:

Hello? It’s the antivaxxers literally making people sick. That’s the whole point. If we don’t vaccinate, then we are dooming our children to suffer through pertussis, measles, mumps, chicken pox, (damage from) HPV, and a host of other ailments, some of which are fatal, but most of which have dire public health consequences.

So there you go, folks. That’s the sort of irrational attitude we’re dealing with here. Bear that in mind when you are deciding how to couch your words with the anti-vaccination group. People with autistic kids certainly deserve our support, and our sympathy. But only up to when they advocate a public health disaster. I will still be sympathetic about their personal trouble, but I will not back down when they promote anti-science and try to sentence millions of children to suffer terrible ailments and perhaps even death.

Well said. I have great compassion for parents of autistic children, but we shouldn’t let emotion or fear blind us to the facts. The website for the Autism Society of America contains a page dealing with the ASA’s position on the MMR vaccine:

ASA Statement on May 2004 IOM Report on Vaccines and Autism

A national panel of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) charged with advising the government on the safety of vaccines released their final report today concluding that there is no causal link between vaccines and autism. The Autism Society of America has reviewed the report and does not support the conclusions drawn and is calling for more credible research into the issue.

…

ASA has had difficulty supporting the conclusions reached by the committee because research on the affected group needed to draw such a conclusion has not been conducted. ASA is calling on the government to launch biological and clinical studies that look at the subgroup of individuals with autism who may be genetically susceptible to the effects of vaccines and/or thimerosal before putting the issue to rest.

They are saying that the proper studies have yet to be performed, and that may be a legitimate claim. It certainly seems reasonable and non-alarmist. But it doesn’t cause the ASA to reject vaccines–ultimately, the ASA reaches the proper conclusion:

ASA Statement on the MMR Vaccine and Autism

“We do know that vaccines have significantly reduced life-threatening diseases in children around the globe. What we don’t know is if there is an issue regarding the amount, the timing, or the medium used to deliver the vaccines that would result in a child developing autism or other developmental disorders.

The Autism Society of America strongly supports research to determine if, in fact, there is a correlation. Until that research is performed and replicated, vaccines continue to be indicated.” [emphasis added]

What they are saying is that, based on all available evidence, there is no causal link between vaccines and autism, and unless or until that link is proven, your children should continue to be vaccinated. Plain and simple and from the horse’s mouth, no less.

[via Bad Astronomy Blog]
[and "fundagelicals" is an incredibly apt term I lifted from PZ Meyers' Pharyngula blog]